Regular.

Oh you just have to try their beer in Ireland, it's completely different, totally amazing and fantastical with magic in. It's to do with the magic elves and leprechaun juice they infuse it with over there. Unlike the dull pond water used in the rest of the world.

Joking aside, are there any tangible factors that would make it different? I remember regularly having to take a short cut through the Park Royal brewery to get to a customers factory in the mid to late nineties and if youd had a late one the night before, the smell of a million pints of the black stuff fermenting away used to test the strongest of constitutions. Presumably notwithstanding the blarney, all of the stuff that comes out of St James Gate is the same?

Regular.

Joking aside, are there any tangible factors that would make it different? I remember regularly having to take a short cut through the Park Royal brewery to get to a customers factory in the mid to late nineties and if youd had a late one the night before, the smell of a million pints of the black stuff fermenting away used to test the strongest of constitutions. Presumably notwithstanding the blarney, all of the stuff that comes out of St James Gate is the same?

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The reason for the difference is Irish magic TM.
That and the subjective nature of taste and the malleability of the human mind and the desire to confirm what you have been told.

Similar phenomenon to Scottish drinkers insisting on Tennant's lager over any of the other 99 percent identical lagers on offer.

Quantum Brewer

Why is it that even here in Ireland people still insist that Guinness varies hugely in quality from pub to pub? Admittedly I'm not a big drinker of Guinness, but I have never honestly noticed any difference in it. It's a pasteurised, kegged product like most mass produced beers, so what makes it so special that it varies so much, whereas the others don't?

Why is it that even here in Ireland people still insist that Guinness varies hugely in quality from pub to pub? Admittedly I'm not a big drinker of Guinness, but I have never honestly noticed any difference in it. It's a pasteurised, kegged product like most mass produced beers, so what makes it so special that it varies so much, whereas the others don't?

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Nothing. Its all marketing bollox of course. I read something in the paper the other day about how someone or other bought a load of tat for a $1 a piece on ebay and then relisted it. But in the description the seller put a story about each item. The resold items went for as much as $75 each. People like a story/narrative. Guinness knows this and also trades on its own particular tale

Landlord.

Why is it that even here in Ireland people still insist that Guinness varies hugely in quality from pub to pub? Admittedly I'm not a big drinker of Guinness, but I have never honestly noticed any difference in it. It's a pasteurised, kegged product like most mass produced beers, so what makes it so special that it varies so much, whereas the others don't?

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It's the same for all beers though, it all depends on the quality of cellerman at that pub. How long are k3gs kept for, pipes cleaned regularly etc.

I drink Guinness is there isn't anything else bar generic lagers and I can tell the difference from pub to pub, there is a pub near me that had a regular that would drink a keg of Guinness a week. It was always a decent pint. He passed away and nobody else drinks it's and it's done s**t

Quantum Brewer

Nothing. Its all marketing bollox of course. I read something in the paper the other day about how someone or other bought a load of tat for a $1 a piece on ebay and then relisted it. But in the description the seller put a story about each item. The resold items went for as much as $75 each. People like a story/narrative. Guinness knows this and also trades on its own particular tale

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I think you're spot on. I was in a pub in Galway a few weeks ago with a friend who's a big advocate of Guinness and he was going on about how great it was there and how bad it was in some other pub, and extolling the virtues of the 2 stage pour etc
He didn't take too kindly to me informing him of the amount of sh1te he spoke and that any perceived difference was most likely in his head.

Quantum Brewer

It's the same for all beers though, it all depends on the quality of cellerman at that pub. How long are k3gs kept for, pipes cleaned regularly etc.

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But why do we only hear it about Guinness then? I know bugger all about kegging and cellarmanship but why should the length of time in the keg make such a difference? And surely if unclean pipes were the reason it'd cause more than a dip in quality, more likely aceto infections or the like?

Landlord.

But why do we only hear it about Guinness then? I know bugger all about kegging and cellarmanship but why should the length of time in the keg make such a difference? And surely if unclean pipes were the reason it'd cause more than a dip in quality, more likely aceto infections or the like?

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Perhaps carling and the rest taste s**t all the time. Plus isn't Guinness part sour so that just get bad with time

Landlord.

Same thing with the Cardiff based `Brains Craft Brewery'. Supposedly somewhere in this lot is a craft brewery:
They must think we're idiots. I tried a can of their Black IPA last week as it was on spesh - just a fairly nondescript stout with zero IPA character.

Regular.

Who would have imagined that a pseudo national product with a large marketing team served to drunks with personal affiliation to particular establishments would develop a legend about its local superiority...
Makes me wonder if we might be seeing the birth of a religion

Same thing with the Cardiff based `Brains Craft Brewery'. Supposedly somewhere in this lot is a craft brewery:View attachment 16047
They must think we're idiots. I tried a can of their Black IPA last week as it was on spesh - just a fairly nondescript stout with zero IPA character.

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Underground?

St Austell brewery do small batches of a limited run (only brewed once) of various recipes/styles and say so on the pump clip of that particular beer but they dont try to pretend their suddenly a microbrewery

Senior Member

Thing is, I've got nowt against breweries on a massive scale, if they manage to mass produce good beer. It's the pretending to be something they aren't that I think is nonsense. It also shows how the whole 'craft' thing is balls. Unlike real ale, which is a defined thing and it is what it is, craft is some wishy washy beardy thing that is seemingly all about feelings and ''back story". I'm sure that there are some fantastic craft beers, but as to what makes them craft, I'm not sure.

Regular.

I drank Guinness almost exclusively for about 20 years. I started to try different beer styles after having a few cracking German beers on a skiing holiday about 10 years ago. There is some truth in the Guiness being better in some bars than others. I believe this had mostly to do with the freshness of the beer. Generally it was better in bars that had a high turn over of it, which used to be "old man bars". Most of the bad pints I had were in nightclubs. I rarely drink the stuff nowadays as on the rare occasion I am out at a a bar there is usually something new for me to try. This was not the case in my youth, nearly all the bars in Belfast then were either Bass or Guinness houses and it was either Guinness/Smithwicks/Harp or Guinness/Bass/Tennents.